This invention relates to an improved stuffing horn construction for a sausage making machine.
Comminution of meat or the like and subsequent packaging thereof in a casing material has long been a popular way for marketing such products, particularly sausage meat products. The processes for grinding, packaging and otherwise preparing sausage products have been highly mechanized. There are, for example, mechanisms which discharge pulverized or ground meat from a nozzle into a sausage casing. After a measured amount of meat material is so discharged, the machine automatically clips or seals the ends of the sausage casing and repeats the process continuously to form additional sausages.
Generally, the sausage casing material is placed on a discharge nozzle or stuffing horn associated with the sausage machine. A ground meat product then feeds into the casing simultaneously pulling or removing the casing from the stuffing horn. Generally, some type of braking mechanism encircles the end of the stuffing horn to control the release of the casing material. After the sausage casing is filled, a clipper mechanism or sealer closes the end of the sausage casing.
One problem associated with such a procedure for filling a sausage casing is that meat flowing from the stuffing horn or nozzle tends to form a fat smear which adheres to the inner surface of the casing. This makes the meat product unattractive and does not accurately represent the contents of the sausage casing.
In order to overcome this objectionable visual effect, various stuffing horn or discharge nozzle constructions have been proposed. Kielsmeier et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,190 and Henderson, U.S. Pat. No. 1,617,848 both disclose a shaped end for a stuffing horn. The shaped end is designed to eliminate fatty deposits on the inside of the sausage casing. Various other patents disclose a stuffing horn construction designed to achieve additional benefits in the making of a sausage product. Among these patents are Atkinson U.S. Pat. No. 658,521, Thom U.S. Pat. No. 723,072, Dyrek U.S. Pat. No. 2,313,229, Gunuskey U.S. Pat. No. 990,547, Kupcikevicius U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,513, Swiss Pat. No. 122,749 and German Pat. No. 1287470.
While the foregoing prior art references disclose various utilitarian stuffing horn constructions, alternate or improved constructions and results are desirable.